


Homecoming

by MalenkayaCherepakha



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 04:26:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalenkayaCherepakha/pseuds/MalenkayaCherepakha
Summary: Harry left England after the war, needing space to process his emotions and the losses he suffered, breaking up with Ginny before he went.Now 4 years later Ron and Hermione are getting married, and guess who the best man and bridesmaid are?How will Harry deal with coming back to England, all the while dealing with an excitable Weasley clan, the endless decisions involved in wedding planning, and an ex-girlfriend who has only got more attractive in the time he's been away?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So here it is, my first attempt at a Hinny fanfic.....!!!!  
> This will be a multi-chapter story, hopefully posting on a fairly regular basis.  
> As a first time fanfic writer any comments and constructive criticism are gratefully received!
> 
> Come and find me on Tumblr, also posting as MalenkayaCherepakha.

Harry knew what had happened the minute Hermione and Ron’s faces appeared in his floo, and not just because Ron had dropped some unsubtle hints about what he was planning. The wide grins on both of their faces, combined with the drying tears on Hermione’s cheeks made it clear that Ron had finally found the nerve to ask her to be his wife. Harry couldn’t have been happier for his friends, and found himself swept up in their excitement as Ron recounted the story of his proposal, Hermione starting to tear up again as he described the moment he got down on one knee.

Once the story was complete, Ron’s face became momentarily serious as he addressed Harry.

“You’ll be my best man right? Not sure I could do this without you next to me mate, and I know Hermione wants you to be a big part of it too.”

Although Harry had been expecting the question and would have been hurt if he hadn’t been asked, part of him had still wondered whether Ron would prefer one of his brothers to stand up with him at the ceremony. He was taken aback at the unexpected rush of emotion that flooded him and had to clear his throat before he could respond that he would be honoured to be best man.

“Oh that’s so great Harry, I’m so happy you’ll be part of our wedding! Obviously you’re technically Ron’s best man but it’s really important to me too”, Hermione exclaimed happily, before turning back into her usual business-like self. “Now we’ll need to start planning soon, you’ll come back to England sometimes to help yes? There’s lots to arrange and I’ve not got much experience with wizarding weddings so I’ve got lots of research to do. I wonder if Mrs Weasley knows of any books on wedding traditions that I could look at… I suppose Hogwarts might have some if she doesn’t, maybe McGonagall will let me visit the library…”

Ron rolled his eyes affectionately at his fiancée’s enthusiasm for research while Harry just grinned at her, before Ron interrupted Hermione’s musings on potential book sources to say that Molly was calling for them and they needed to go.

“You’ll come over soon right? I think mum’s planning a celebration dinner next weekend with the Grangers – my best man needs to be there!” Ron said as they were saying their goodbyes, and Harry immediately promised he would do his best to be there, although his stomach filled with nerves at the prospect of ending his self-imposed exile from British Wizarding society after four long years.

 

* * *

 

 

Harry closed the gate behind him and took a deep breath, bracing himself for the chaos of a full Weasley party after so many years of just seeing a few members of the family at a time, away from the Burrow. Being back in the country was already causing old emotions to be stirred up, and he knew that going back into the Burrow and seeing the extended Weasley clan would just bring up more feelings that he’d tried to avoid.

At the time he’d refused to see his decision to leave England as running away, but with hindsight he could now admit that he had in fact been running away, from the public attention, the pressure of trying to live up to his Saviour title, and the grief that threatened to overwhelm him after the war. Ginny had been the first person to suggest that he needed a break, as their relationship meant that she saw the depths of the strain he was under, unlike the others who thought he was coping rather than just hiding his emotions.

At first Harry hadn’t taken her suggestion well, flying off the handle and accusing her of being bored with him and wanting to get rid of him but being too afraid to just break up with him. Harry had stormed off to Grimmauld Place, and they hadn’t spoken for 2 days, making it the worst fight of their relationship. He still feels guilty about that incident, as he’d quickly realised that Ginny had only meant well, and that actually, getting away for a bit was exactly what he needed.

Once he had made his decision, it didn’t take long to get arrangements in place for his trip – he’d decided to go and travel the world, starting in Asia where no one had ever heard of him or Voldemort before heading to Australia, and then making his way through South America, the USA, and Europe before finally returning home. The trip was supposed to last 6 months, not the nearly 4 years that Harry had ended up being away.

He and Ginny had decided to separate before he went away, reasoning that they both needed space to come to terms with the war and the losses they had suffered. Harry had also wanted Ginny to be able to enjoy returning to Hogwarts rather than pine over him, and he’d figured that he’d be back in 6 months and they could pick things back up then.

Plans changed though, and Harry found himself relishing the time alone, seeing the sights of the world without any pressure to do something heroic. 6 months became 9, then a year, and before he knew it he found himself settled in Tahiti, and the idea of going home and back to the routine of England felt like an impossibility.

He’d known it couldn’t last though, and so the time had come to face what he had left behind, starting with the Burrow and all the Weasleys he could hear inside it.

 

 

The party was already in full swing when Harry walked in to the living room, with the whole Weasley family and the Grangers celebrating the good news. Bill and Fleurs’ kids were wreaking havoc with Teddy while Molly was shrieking, mostly with joy but also with some fear as George tossed her up in the air, getting higher each time. Hermione and Ron were sat on the sofa in the middle of the chaos, looking blissfully happy and clearly unable to leave the others side.

Bill was the first to notice Harry standing in the doorway and strode over to clasp him in a bear hug, saying how good it was to see him again after so long.

“Oi, you lot! Look who’s here!” Bill shouted over the general noise of the room, causing all eyes to turn to Harry. The response was deafening, with a stampede of people threatening to overwhelm him as they all tried to hug him, or clap him on the back, or in Teddy’s case, jump on his back and screech in his ear. Harry just grinned, accepting his hugs and saying how much he’d missed them all.

“Oh I’m so glad you came Harry, it wouldn’t have been the same without you!” said Hermione as she hugged him “I bet you’d forgotten how crazy it gets here!”. Harry and Hermione had always bonded over feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Weasleys that sometimes crammed into the Burrow, and it was nice to be reminded the he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“Hey Harry” came a voice to his side once the others had all greeted him and returned to their previous activities.

“Oh hey Ginny, how’s it going” Harry replied, turning to look at his ex-girlfriend for only the 4th or 5th time since their break up.

“I’m glad you’re back, you can help me help these two with the wedding planning, you know I’m not that interested in floral arrangements and colour schemes!” Ginny said laughing, clearly not uncomfortable about being face-to-face with her ex again.

“I’m not sure I’ll be much good at any of that either to be honest, but at least neither of us will have to suffer alone now!” Harry replied, pleased that any potential awkwardness between them seemed to not be present.

Harry should have realised that Ginny would be equally involved in this wedding too, of course she would be Hermione’s bridesmaid, and that would inevitably lead to them spending a significant amount of time together in the run up to the day. He had a moment of being grateful that neither of them had been petty or vindictive in the course of their breakup, and then another moment thinking how great it was that Ginny had realised what he needed and selflessly let him have it without holding a grudge against him.

He felt confident that they could manage this wedding without things getting weird between them, something which he knew Ron and Hermione had been concerned about when they asked them to be best man and bridesmaid. He didn’t want to do anything to ruin their day, and if he was being honest he had been a bit worried that he wouldn’t be able to help causing problems if things had felt strained between him and Ginny.

 

 

The dinner flew by, the Weasleys filling Harry in on things he’d missed while he was away, regaling each other with stories about Ron and Hermione in honour of their engagement, and Molly showing that she hadn’t changed a bit in 4 years by constantly pressing more food on Harry until he could barely breath he was so full. He realised that he had been suppressing exactly how much he missed this, and spent most of dinner listening rather than talking, content to simply savour the atmosphere and take in as many details as he could.

As they were all helping clear the table Hermione and Ron called Harry and Ginny over.

“We want to get started on planning the details of the wedding as soon as possible - we’d like to get married this summer so we don’t have much time. We’ll need you two to help out a lot, or at least as much as you can, I know your training schedule is intense Ginny” Hermione said, looking hopefully at the two of them.

“Of course I’ll help out as much as I can! Gwenog is pretty happy with how we performed this season, so the training schedule isn’t as crazy as it has been in the past and I should be able to get away more often. I can come and stay at the Burrow sometimes and we can try and do lots then” Ginny said.

Ron turned to Harry as Hermione hugged Ginny, looking serious as he said “I know you’ve had your reasons for staying away from England Harry, but I promise things aren’t as mental as they were when you left. I hardly get bothered by the press at all anymore! If you really want to stay away I get it, but it would be great if you could be part of this.”

Harry’s mind had been racing the whole way through dinner, knowing that returning to England would be difficult but feeling heartsick at the prospect of missing out on his best friends getting married, realising that being out of the country would mean that he would inevitably miss out on being part of decisions and events such as dinner tonight. The idea of giving up the freedom he had gained living abroad was hard to accept though, let alone leaving the home he had created for himself and the friends he had found. But those friends could never match up to Ron and Hermione.

“I really want to be a part of your wedding mate, but I just don’t know if I can deal with coming back. You don’t know how much I was struggling before I left. I need some time to think about it, make some decisions – I hope that’s okay.” Harry knew that making a spontaneous decision was a terrible idea, and he was determined to take some time and think through his options, however much his heart ached at the idea of walking out of the Burrow that night. “I’ll come back next weekend and we can start some planning if that’s alright.”

“Of course mate, take your time. It’s been great having you here tonight if nothing else” Ron replied, before slapping Harry hard on the back, pausing, coughing, and then finally pulling Harry into a swift hug. Harry returned the hug with feeling, fighting a mixture of amusement, nostalgia, and sadness at witnessing Ron’s patented inability to deal with emotions.

Harry began to say his goodbyes to the Weasleys, preparing himself for the arduous journey back home, although grateful that he had managed to secure a late-night portkey, by no means an easy feat.

Ginny was one of the last Weasleys he turned to before he left. They hadn’t spoken to each other much all evening, still figuring out where they stood with each other, although he hadn’t been able to stop his eyes from drifting over to her on occasion, noticing how she’d changed over the past few years, how she’d grown up and become stronger thanks to her Quidditch training, while still being as outgoing and funny as the girl he’d fallen for at school.

He gave her a quick hug, suddenly feeling a bit of the awkwardness that he’d been expecting when he first saw her, relaxing when she hugged him back and said, “good to see you Potter, don’t leave it so long next time”.

He left the Burrow feeling a strange mixture of sadness and contentment, his desire to stay battling with his desire to run away again from the emotions flooding through him, and above all complete confusion over what on earth he should do next.


	2. Chapter 2

The next week passed slowly for Harry, his life in Tahiti feeling strangely like it didn’t belong to him anymore after the reminder of his old life, the life he had so casually left behind. 

When he had first started his travels around the world, he had viewed it as nothing more than a quick break, some time for himself before he returned to the life he had been planning, and so it had been easy to leave it behind with barely a second thought. 

At first when he had decided to not go back to England at the planned time, Harry had been happy to give up the life he had been expecting; the career in the Auror force, the press attention, the inevitable marriage to Ginny, then kids and a quiet life in the countryside. 

He missed Ginny of course, he had always enjoyed spending time with her and he couldn’t deny that they had an incredible connection in every way, but being free from everything else that came with life in England had been such a relief that giving up their relationship had seemed like a fair trade.

It wasn’t as though he was doomed to never meet anyone else he connected with well, and he had indeed met some great women during his time away. If they didn’t quite match up to Ginny, well, it was inevitable that no one could live up to the idealised image of your first love, right?

Now though, he was questioning all his decisions, wondering whether cutting himself off from his adopted family had been the right choice. He knew his involvement in the wedding would just make things more confusing, as already he had received multiple messages about various events he would need to go back home for, making his plan to just occasionally pop back to the UK seem impossible.

He was determined not to make any quick decisions, to be rational and think things through before acting, but Harry was old enough to know that going against his life-long instinct to act first, think later, would be a big challenge. 

 

Harry headed back to the UK the very next weekend, this time planning to stay for several days as Ginny happened to have a rare few consecutive days off training and Ron and Hermione wanted to tick as many jobs off their increasingly long list as possible. 

The first day he was back Harry barely had time to sit down, arriving at the Burrow only to be immediately whisked off to look at potential suits for himself and Ron. They then headed to Ogden’s to taste possible whiskeys for the reception, a trip which resulted in he and Ron returning to the Burrow in high spirits, having drank slightly more whiskey than they had intended.

“Looks like you boys had fun at Ogden’s” Hermione remarked wryly as they burst through the door laughing hard at some immature joke Ron had made. “I hope there’s still some whiskey left for us to have at the wedding!”

“It was so amazing Hermione! You thought firewhiskey was good, just wait til you try some of what we’ve picked out!” Ron enthused, grabbing her in a slightly too enthusiastic hug. “How was dress shopping? Did you manage to persuade that one over there that she does need to wear a dress?” he added, looking over at Ginny who was leaning against the kitchen counter sipping a glass of wine. 

“We actually found a really nice one for Ginny, she looks stunning! Plus it goes really well with mine” Hermione said, still wrapped in Ron’s arms. 

“I’m not so sure it’s the right choice dear,” said Molly as she entered the kitchen to begin serving up dinner. “It is rather revealing for a bridesmaid’s dress...”

“It’s fine mum honestly, no one will be looking at me anyway” sighed Ginny, flashing a quick grin Harry’s way, letting him know that she too was remembering the furore over her dress at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, something they’d often laughed about together. Harry returned her smile, pleased that they hadn’t lost their easy ability to joke with each other even after so long apart. 

He had been nervous before he arrived at the Burrow that day, concerned that the ease that had been present between he and Ginny the previous weekend would have disappeared, and that he would feel awkward and uncomfortable being back. As the evening progressed though, he found himself joining in with the dinner conversation more than he had the previous weekend and was relieved to end the night feeling simply happy, rather than having to contend with the significantly more complicated feelings he’d had at the end of the celebration dinner. 

 

The following day was dedicated to possibly the most difficult part of organising a wedding: deciding on the guest list. 

Ron and Hermione had originally wanted a small, intimate celebration with just family and close friends. The extended Weasley family however had already grown so much with the addition of partners and children that this idea didn’t last for long, particularly as Mrs Weasley kept insisting that they had to invite certain people, or that of course Great Aunt Muriel would be coming. 

The seemingly never-ending discussions over the guest list took the majority of the day, although once they had listed all the friends, Hogwarts classmates, and Order of the Phoenix members they could think of, Harry and Ginny were able to take more of a back seat, content to let Ron, Hermione, and Mrs Weasley debate the finer points of who exactly made the final cut. 

Towards the middle of the afternoon Harry excused himself from the discussion, claiming the start of a headache meant he needed some fresh air. It wasn’t exactly a lie; although Harry didn’t particularly have a headache he did feel in desperate need of fresh air and a break. 

As he leant on the railing surrounding the back porch, eyes closed, face turned up towards the weak winter sun, Harry heard the door open and someone walk up to stand next to him. 

“It’s getting a bit much in there isn’t it, I forgot how crazy mum gets about weddings” Ginny said, joining him in leaning against the railings, her arm almost close enough to touch his.

“Glad it’s not me getting married, think I might lose my mind if I had to make all those decisions” Harry muttered.

“Weird isn’t it, that once upon a time that might have been us, sat with mum deciding who should be at our wedding” Ginny replied, seemingly without any ill feeling.

“For a long time I thought that would be us one day… life hasn’t quite turned out how I expected” Harry said, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could decide whether it was wise to say them.

“Me neither”, Ginny said, before turning to look directly at Harry, a serious expression on her face. “I think we made the right choices though, you were a mess when you left. We wouldn’t have worked out with you in that state, and it’s been good to be able to focus on Quidditch without distractions.”

“I’ve never properly thanked you for suggesting that I go away, I didn’t realise how badly I needed it. You always did know me better than I know myself” Harry chuckled, pleased to see Ginny’s expression becoming less serious in response. “And it’s great to see you doing so well at Quidditch, being able to concentrate on it has obviously paid off. Although the distractions were always fun…” Harry added teasingly.

“You were always very good at distracting me” Ginny replied coyly, and they both fell silent for a moment, briefly lost in memories of their time together. Harry couldn’t believe they were able to talk this casually about their relationship, flirt even, without it feeling weird or uncomfortable.

The talk about ‘distracting’ Ginny had led Harry down a path of memories of all the times he and Ginny had been together, from the stolen moments in alcoves in sixth year, to the months after the war when they had spent hours curled up in bed together in Grimmauld Place, alternating between making love and sleeping, finding comfort and peace in the quiet time they had together. 

Despite the awful moments that had followed the war, the funerals, the grieving, the relentless paparazzi anytime he tried to leave the house, those had been some of the happiest times of his life. 

Looking back on them, combined with the rush of flirting with the present-day Ginny, whose hair glowed in the setting sun and whose beauty had only grown during his time away, left Harry feeling confused, nostalgic, and more than a little turned on.

He knew he didn’t want to get back together with Ginny, knew he wasn’t ready to commit to coming back home, that making that sort of decision because of a brief moment of attraction to an old girlfriend was an unbelievably stupid idea, but he couldn’t help himself wondering what if…

They had always got on so well, had built a solid friendship that had remained strong during their relationship, and so far seemed to have weathered their break up. He was definitely still attracted to her, and the way she spoke to him, teasing him and reminding him of their previous physical relationship suggested perhaps she felt the same way about him. 

Maybe it wasn’t so crazy to think that there could be something more between them…


End file.
